


Abstain

by tehfanglyfish



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur Knows About Merlin's Magic (Merlin), Arthur is frustrated, Canon Era, Deviates From Canon, Getting Together, Hand Jobs, M/M, Merlin Is Helpful, Sex Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:08:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25767955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tehfanglyfish/pseuds/tehfanglyfish
Summary: Arthur finds himself frustrated after two weeks of having to abstain from a variety of pleasures to complete a Druid purification ritual. Merlin finds a loophole.Written for Kinkalot Bonus Challenge - Sex Magic
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 46
Kudos: 290
Collections: Kinkalot 2020





	Abstain

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the Kinkalot mods for letting non-participants do the bonus challenges!
> 
> I make no claim to this franchise or these characters. Do not repost my work to other sites.

“I thought,” Arthur huffed, kicking off his boots before throwing himself on the improvised bed of blankets and cushions piled up inside his tent, “that Druids were meant to be fun. Gwaine said their parties are things of legend.”

“And they are,” Merlin said, closing the flap as he followed Arthur into the tent. “But the party’s not until tomorrow night. Only one more day of the purification ritual and you can let loose.”

“You make it sound like it’s no big deal.”

“It’s really not. You endure a few days of minor inconvenience, then Iseldir welcomes you into his band tomorrow night as an honorary Druid, and peace prevails.”

“Why can’t we skip the ritual and go straight to the party?”

“Because it symbolizes rebirth, humility, and a desire to change.”

“I thought repealing the ban would show all that.”

“And it did. This is just the final part of the process. Besides, as challenges go, it’s pretty minor.”

“Easy for you to say. No one makes the great Emrys engage in extreme abstinence for two weeks. The Camelot dungeons are more comfortable than this stupid Druid camp.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“It’s worse. I cannot believe this list.” He lifted a crumpled parchment from beside the blankets and waved it at Merlin. “My linen clothes replaced with coarse wool, no consumption of meat or alcohol, no hunting or sport. All of that might be endurable if I wasn’t also forbidden to…”

“To what?”

“Nothing.” Arthur jerked the parchment back before Merlin could grab it.

“It’s clearly something, something you’ve been keeping from me. I knew about all the other restrictions, so what haven’t you told me?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Arthur didn’t like where Merlin’s curiosity was heading. “It’s like you said. One more day and I can let loose. You should sleep.”

“Alright.” Merlin stripped off his boots, jacket, and neckerchief. “I’m too tired to argue with you.”

Arthur watched as Merlin adjusted his own pile of blankets. He was so focused on the task that Arthur relaxed, letting his guard down. Which turned out to be a mistake.

Before he could react, Merlin sprung for the list. They wrestled for several minutes, Merlin desperate to grab it and Arthur just as desperate to stop him. It was only when Merlin rolled on top of him, thighs straddling Arthur’s hips that they froze.

For the briefest of moments, Merlin’s eyes went wide, though Arthur barely noticed, more focused on willing away his swelling erection.

Sorcerers are devious, Arthur reminded himself as Merlin used the distraction to snatch the parchment.

“Let’s see,” he said, retreating with it to his bedroll. “No meat, no wine, no dice, no… oh.”

Arthur felt his face burn.

“Well, that explains why you’ve grown increasingly grouchy this week.”

“Shut up, Merlin.” He lobbed a pillow at Merlin’s head.

“See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve had no way to, ahem, release the tension.”

“You had better be glad,” Arthur growled, “that I’m also abstaining from violence. Otherwise, I’d release the tension on you.”

Gods help him. That sounded far different aloud than it had in his mind. He hoped Merlin didn’t hear the unintended innuendo. He really should have thought before he spoke, but the fortnight of restricted living was taking its toll.

It wasn’t so much the denial of comforts and indulgences; after all, a knight had to be able to endure privation. It was the denial of one specific indulgence, made worse by the fact he’d been forced to spend the past two weeks sleeping in the same tent as Merlin.

Of course Merlin would be staying with him. Merlin was his… Arthur wasn’t even sure anymore. Since Merlin’s magic came to light, Arthur had insisted he take his rightful place on the council. (In reality, Arthur had wanted him there years earlier - even before Arthur needed his expertise on all things magical, he’d relied heavily on Merlin’s advice.) Though he begrudgingly accepted his promotion, Merlin continued to show up with Arthur’s breakfast each morning, staying by his side until it was time to shuffle the king into the royal pajamas each night.

And their interactions went well beyond professional, what with the bickering and the banter and the inside jokes. Merlin was Arthur’s closest friend, as well as the object of both his love and his lust, not that Arthur would ever confess.

When Gwaine had called them an old married couple, he likely didn’t know just how close he was to the truth of Arthur’s most secret desires. Or maybe he did. Gwaine was maddeningly perceptive.

A true Pendragon, Arthur shoved his emotions aside, determined not to make Merlin feel uncomfortable by sharing feelings he knew Merlin couldn’t possibly return. He thought he had it all under control until the purification ritual.

Each night Arthur had to endure the ordeal of Merlin getting ready for bed. Arthur tried his best to look away when Merlin stripped down for the night, but inadvertently he always got an eyeful, seeing more of Merlin’s naked skin over the past two weeks than he’d seen in all the years they’d known one another.

There was his bare neck, no longer concealed by cloth. The curve of his bum as he bent over to unbuckle his boots. His broad chest, which looked like it would be firm under Arthur’s palm, adorned with just the right amount of hair. Speaking of hair, it took all of Arthur’s self-restraint not to stare at the patch that emerged right above the waistband to Merlin’s breeches. Arthur wasn’t sure how much more he could endure. Just last night Arthur had to blow out the candle before Merlin could finish undressing, the sight of his fingers tugging at his breeches laces proving too much to bear.

Years ago he’d given up the fight against touching himself while thinking about Merlin. The two weeks they’d spent in the tent had blessed him with ample content for his wank fantasies, but at the very high cost of Arthur’s sanity. Even after completing the purification ritual, he would still have to endure the tortuous journey home before he’d have a moment of peace and privacy to finally get off.

The choked laugh next to him pulled Arthur back from his thoughts. Clearly Merlin had picked up on the innuendo. Great. Fucking fantastic. One more ordeal to endure in the name of peace. Arthur buried his head under a cushion, too mortified to meet Merlin’s eyes.

“You know,” Merlin began after a moment of silence, “there might be a way.”

“A way for what?” He didn’t bother holding back the annoyance in his voice. What was the use?

“For you to, um, release the tension, as it were.”

“Please shut up.”

“It would require my help.”

“I don’t want your help,” Arthur lied, “and even if I did, it’s not like it would matter. The rules clearly state that no one – not me, not another – is allowed to… help.”

“That’s not entirely true.”

“Yes, it is. The parchment states that ‘no flesh shall touch your flesh for the purpose of pleasure.’”

“Right…”

“Which means that, I can’t touch myself.”

“True.”

“And no one else can touch me.”

“Also true.”

“Which means that you can’t help.”

“Wrong.”

“What? Are you going to get me off with your natural charm?” Annoyance was evolving into frustration. Why couldn’t Merlin just let him sleep?

“While my charm is immense, that wasn’t what I had in mind. I’ve been working on my healing spells…”

“And if I was sick, that would mean something.”

He could hear the exasperated sigh, followed by muttered words that may or may not have been “pompous ass needs to get laid.” Arthur wondered if he could spontaneously master sorcery by sheer force of will and magic himself out of existence.

“What I am trying to tell you,” Merlin said in the overly calm voice he saved for when Arthur was being excessively impossible, “is that I have a spell that may be able to help you alleviate your problem without anyone’s… flesh… getting touched. Well, except mine.”

The gasp slipped out before Arthur could stop it. _That_ was not the image he needed right now, especially with a long night of self-denial ahead of him. Then again…

“How does it work?” He couldn’t believe he was asking – it had been a very long, very hard two weeks.

“Sometimes, healers have to treat patients who, for whatever reason, can’t communicate. Maybe they’re delirious, or they’ve lost consciousness. Sometimes they don’t speak the same language as the healer or maybe they can’t speak at all and the healer doesn’t understand their hand signs.”

That wasn’t news to Arthur. He’d taken more than a few blows to the head in combat that had left him knocked out.

“What does that have to do with me and my current predicament?”

“Be quiet and I’ll tell you. There’s a spell, used for diagnosis. It lets the healer feel what their patient is feeling so they can figure out what’s wrong. I think I can reverse it so that you can… feel… what I feel. Without anyone touching you.”

“Which means you would cast the spell and then you’d…” He couldn’t say the words.

“Yes. Here in the tent. The closer to you, the better… the spell has a limited range.”

“I see.” Arthur croaked, his throat now dry. In his breeches, he could feel his cock swelling against the constrictive fabric of his smallclothes.

“It’s only a suggestion,” Merlin said. “I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it. You just seemed so miserable.”

“Do you want to?” In all of Arthur’s fantasies, Merlin had been a willing participant. The same needed to be true in reality.

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.”

Arthur considered Merlin’s response. Consent was one thing, enthusiastic consent quite another.

“Let me ask it a different way,” Arthur began, trying to summon whatever courage he could find. “Are you offering because you want to make me feel better? Or because it’s something that you would enjoy?”

Merlin lifted away the cushion covering Arthur’s head. “Why does it have to be one or the other? Why can’t it be both?”

He searched Merlin’s eyes. “You’re certain? Because in all the time I’ve known you, not once have you ever proposed anything like this.”

“I didn’t think you’d want it, want me, want whatever.”

“Idiot.” Arthur would have to work on his love declarations. Fortunately, from the way Merlin was smiling at him, he knew he needn’t worry.

“So… do you want to?”

There would be, Arthur knew, no turning back from this. Going through with this would forever alter the nature of their relationship. But that’s what he’d wanted for years and, judging from the way Merlin was eyeing his bulge and licking his lips, the attraction was not one-sided.

“Yes.” He barely had the word out before Merlin sprung into action.

“Good. Just lie back and try to get comfortable. Oh, and take your trousers off.”

“Not going to help me?” Arthur’s hands were shaking as he reached for the laces of his breeches.

“When you’re less than a day away from having successfully completed the purification ritual? Not on your life. One slip of my hand and the past two weeks will all have been for nothing. Speaking of which, stop that!”

Arthur caught himself just before he reached inside his breeches.

“Probably better to just slide them down your hips,” Merlin suggested. “From the looks of things, I don’t think it’s possible for you to touch your… flesh… without causing pleasure.”

There was something in Merlin’s voice that Arthur had never heard before. He very much hoped he got to hear it again.

“Tunic too?”

“Gods, yes. If you can do it carefully.”

Arthur tried to focus on removing his final piece of clothing and not the fact that Merlin seemed to want him just as much as he wanted Merlin.

“What about you?” He gestured at Merlin’s breeches.

“Oh. Right. Good idea.”

Arthur almost laughed as Merlin, in his haste, nearly tripped and fell.

“Be careful. What if you’d fallen on me?”

“I would beg Iseldir for a pardon. First thing in the morning. After I’d spent the night having my way with you.”

Merlin shimmied out of his own tunic, turning so that Arthur could see him in full view. The sight of his erection, thick and full, put any lingering doubts Arthur might have had to rest.

“Do you think he’d grant one?” Arthur asked. If there was any chance that he could touch Merlin…

“Probably not. Stop pushing your luck and be glad we found a loophole. Now lie back and get comfortable.”

Arthur did as he was told, watching as Merlin moved his bedding closer, though still just out of arm’s reach. He dug around in his satchel to retrieve something, then lay down.

“Now, should I extinguish the candle?”

“Better leave it lit.” There was no way Arthur was going to forego the opportunity to watch.

“That’s what I thought you’d say.” Merlin flashed him a grin. “Now lie still and be quiet while I recite the incantation. If I’m not careful the reversal won’t work.”

Merlin’s voice filled the tent, chanting out the words. Arthur gripped the blanket beneath him, steadying himself in preparation for the spell to take effect.

“Alright,” Merlin finally said, “close your eyes. What do you feel?”

“Noth- oh!”

The pressure of what felt like an open hand slid along his belly. It couldn’t be a spell – it felt too real. He opened his eyes, fully expecting to find Merlin caressing him. Instead, he was still off to Arthur’s side, lying on his own bedroll, hand grazing across his own stomach.

“That’s…” Arthur groaned, lost in the sensation of Merlin’s hand.

“Everything ok?” Merlin’s eyes locked on Arthur’s.

He nodded.

“Good. But if you decide it’s too much or you want to stop, tell me.”

“Alright. Same goes for you. But for now, maybe you could not stop?”

Merlin laughed, letting his right hand rub along the inside of his thigh. “Impatient, are we?”

“It’s been two weeks, Merlin,” Arthur tried to keep his breathing steady as Merlin’s hand worked its way up his thigh, his skin just as sensitive as Arthur’s apparently. “Besides, it’s your fault I’m in this state, what with your nightly strip tease.”

“Nice to know my efforts were appreciated.”

“Are you telling me that you were torturing on purpose?”

Before Arthur could sit up to retaliate, Merlin moved his left hand lower. Arthur could feel soft hair under Merlin’s palm as his fingertips brushed against the base of his cock. For a minute they lingered, then Merlin gripped his shaft.

Arthur gasped. “Gods, Merlin.”

It was unlike anything Arthur had ever experienced before. If he didn’t know about the spell, he might almost have believed he was touching himself.

There was the familiar sensation of pleasure, so welcome after weeks of denial, but with some notable differences. His fingers weren’t as slender as Merlin’s, his cock wasn’t quite so long, and Merlin seemed to enjoy taking things slow and easy.

Not that he minded Merlin’s lazy strokes. Arthur always rushed – the teasing and toying was a welcome change.

How often had Merlin done this, Arthur wondered. It was a stupid question, he knew. There was no reason to be surprised that Merlin enjoyed a wank and Arthur would be a hypocrite if he failed to acknowledge his own habits.

But when had Merlin found the time to perfect his technique? Arthur hissed as he teased the foreskin, shuddered at the light pressure of fingertips grazing along and underneath the head, bit back a moan as Merlin cupped his balls with his right hand.

Arthur changed his earlier assessment. This was nothing like touching himself – it was completely different and infinitely better. Because now he could hear Merlin’s labored breathing, watch Merlin’s graceful fingers slide up and down the length of his shaft, see Merlin chewing on his bottom lip, face flushed.

“Is there anything you want me to do?” Merlin’s breathing had grown ragged.

“Just… whatever you like… whatever feels best.”

“Ok. Hang on.”

Merlin shifted, reaching for something in the blankets. After a moment’s fumbling, Arthur could feel cool glass in his hands, followed by a coating of slippery oil.

“I keep it in case of pulled muscles,” Merlin explained, “but it has other uses.”

Arthur hoped the rest of the camp didn’t hear the high-pitched sound that he made.

Merlin smirked for a second, then his face grew shy. “I’m going to try something different. If you don’t like it…”

“Whatever it is. I want to.”

“Alright.” Merlin laid back down, this time with his knees bent.

The return of Merlin’s hand to his cock was a welcome relief, the oil making the experience even better than before. Lost in the sensation, Arthur almost missed what Merlin was doing with his other hand until he felt it – a finger, coated in oil trailing between his thighs and below his bollocks, until it was pressed against his hole.

“Sure this is alright?”

“Please.” Arthur sounded desperate and he didn’t care.

Merlin took a deep breath and then Arthur felt it – Merlin’s finger. Inside of him. Never had he let himself imagine such a thing.

It was almost enough to make him lose control. He clung to the blanket in his hands, too lost in sensation to speak.

Merlin’s grip on his cock had tightened, the pace of his strokes speeding up. One finger was replaced by two, probing deeper until they hit a spot that caused Arthur’s body to seize. It was almost too much, rapid pace of Merlin’s wrist, the way his fingers were thrusting. Arthur wasn’t sure how much more he could endure.

Then Merlin’s body went still, his climax pulsing out, the waves of pleasure pushing Arthur to simultaneous release, groaning Merlin’s name as he came, his body quivering even after it was over.

They lay on their backs, catching their breath.

“Feeling better?” Merlin finally asked.

“Much. Thank you. I think I’ll be able to endure the final day of the ritual.”

“Good. Now go to sleep. You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow. And then… when it’s over…”

“Yes?”

“I have plans for you. If you’re interested, of course.”

“We’ll leave the party as soon as diplomacy allows.”


End file.
